


Bee and the doctor

by Bigbass



Category: Stardew Valley (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Blood and Injury, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, I'm Bad At Tagging, Slow Burn, the author pretends to know anything about medical care
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-14
Updated: 2021-02-12
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:22:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,097
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28072386
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bigbass/pseuds/Bigbass
Summary: Bee Honeycombe moves away from the city to start anew in Stardew Valley. can she maybe find new love in the nervous town doctor Harvey Fletcher? and can she escape the past forever?
Relationships: Harvey/Female Player (Stardew Valley), Harvey/Player (Stardew Valley), Maru/Penny (Stardew Valley)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5





	1. Chapter 1

In an evermoving world one thing was stationary and clear as day. Bee Honeycombe hated Joja. Hated working for the corrupt company, hated what they stood for, hated the life that Joja brought her. 

It was a Wednesday – or was it Tuesday? – the days all blurred together into one grey lump of misery. What had she done to deserve this life? Was it the time she stood on a worm on her pops’ farm as a kid? Or maybe the time she accidentally tripped up her playmate. What was her name again?

Maisie? No, that wasn’t right.

What about Mary? No, not that either.

‘Maru!’ 

Bee didn’t even get a chance to process that she’d actually said that aloud she was greeted with the harsh glares, grumbling and shushing that came from not working in silence. As embarrassment threatened to burn her alive, she got another call through.

Right. She was at work and work meant angry Joja customers. Putting on her best customer service voice she picked up the receiver and got to work. She counted herself lucky to still have a job, her vertically challenged five foot frame, multiple piercings and neon green hair meant not many places would hire her, so she wasn’t keen to get fired.

5pm struck, marking the transition period from one misery to the other. Her boyfriend Elijah would expect her to start cooking as soon as she got home, and she often wouldn’t get rest until they had both eaten and the dishes were done. By her of course. That was if he didn’t want anything else from her, she knew better than to argue with what he wanted at this point, her neck was still sore from the last time he had to persuade her.

Approaching her apartment, she pulled out her keys and walked through the front door, and in a voice scarily like the voice she put on for work she called out to let him know she was home.

‘took you long enough woman, get on with my food.’

‘of course sweetie, what do you want’

Dinner was finally done, and she was about to settle down to play the new game she had just bought when she heard a holler from the bedroom

‘OI! ARE YOU GONNA WANT THIS LETTER OR AM I GONNA TRASH IT!?’

That was it. That was the release she had so desperately needed. Her thoughts raced back to the day her grandfather had died. How betrayed she had felt when he pressed a letter into her hand and told her not to open it yet, it had been so long that she’d forgotten his exact words but the term ‘life gets too much’ stood out like a sore thumb in her mind. 

‘Thanks sweetie’ she replied as she took the letter from him.

Breaking the wax seal, she peered into the contents of the letter to freeze in shock.

This was the deed to her pops’ farm.  
A life in the valley sounded perfect she decided. But he would never let her go, so she knew she had to run. And soon.


	2. Chapter two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dr Harvey finds out about the new face, and Bee takes the plunge

Mayor Lewis was expecting many things that day. Children crashing into him after not paying full attention to where they were going, Pierre’s relentless attempts to get him to buy who knows what when he came to collect their tax, even a loose calf near Marnie’s ranch wasn’t too far into the unexpected. One thing he was not expecting however was to receive a call at 8:30pm from the granddaughter of Stanley Honeycombe, explaining that she wished to move to the valley and take over his old farm. Of course, it was exciting to get a new arrival to the valley, even if three days’ time seemed soon. The townsfolk would be ecstatic.

‘I’ll put the notice up on the board tomorrow morning, I’ll also arrange for Robin to come meet you when we arrive’

‘Thank you mayor, I look forward to meeting you in person and thank you again for offering to pick me up’

Lewis cringed at the use of his official title, ‘Just Lewis is fine, I hope you’ll become a pert of our little community’

That marked the end of the call, and deciding he was just too impatient to wait until morning he wrote a notice on the bright yellow paper he saved for important news, grabbed his heavy boots and took the walk up to Pierre’s to pin it to the board before returning home, lingering excitement in his old bones that they would finally have someone new in the valley.

As daylight creeped over the valley, Gus O’Brien left the stardrop saloon and headed towards the general shop, eager to replenish his stocks of oil before he started prep for the day, however upon noticing the yellow slip of paper on the notice board oil became the last thing on his mind. Someone new was moving into the valley? There hadn’t been anyone new in years, this was big news. As soon as the doors opened, he prompted Pierre to look, who alerted his wife. Once Caroline knew about something it was common knowledge at this point that the whole town would know within an hour. 

Harvey Fletcher wasn’t the most extroverted man. His anxiety made sure that didn’t happen, but he wasn’t completely detached from the community, and a text from his best friend and employee Maru was more than enough to convince him to leave the clinic and take a look at what was going on outside. 

‘Hey doc! Come take a look at this!’ came the shouts of the enthusiastic scientist he’d grown to know. 

He made his way over to her, where she was pointing at a yellow slip on the notice board that read as following: ‘ ATTENTION ALL RESIDENTS OF PELICAN TOWN: ON THE FIRST DAY OF SPRING WE WILL BE EXPECTING THE ARRIVAL OF MISS BEE HONEYCOMBE WHO IS MOVING IN TO TAKE OVER THE FARM LEFT TO HER BY THE LATE STANLEY HONEYCOMBE’

Well. That was certainly exciting news, in the 4 years he had been in the valley nobody new had moved in, which had made his arrival the hot topic for seasons after he moved in. he wasn’t looking forward to her having to deal with that. He turned to Maru who was looking at him expectantly. 

‘Well once she is properly settled, I should really pay her a visit to ensure she gets registered with us as soon as she can, and I’ll get her details sent over from zuzu city.’  
This answer didn’t seem to satisfy Maru as she rolled her eyes at him jokingly.

‘Harvey Fletcher, ever the doctor. Who knows, maybe she’s pretty’ she commented, nudging him as she mentioned her looks.

It was no new fact that Harvey was still a bachelor, and at 35 he solidly doubted that would change any time soon. Not when the other bachelors in the town were all early twenties, and rather attractive. Well they were at least attractive compared to him, the years of stress as a doctor had led to some poor dietary choices and early grey hairs as well as a middle rather softer than he was comfortable with. There was no use in hanging on his insecurities now, he had a job to do.

Heading back to the clinic he called back to her. ‘Who knows, however one thing I certainly do know is that the clinic opened ten minutes ago and as doctor it is my job to be there, as well as what I pay you for.’ 

He hadn’t intended for that last comment to come across so harsh, but it had done the intended job, as Maru hurried to join him inside.  
A new face huh, it’ll be fun to see how this turns out.

‘WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU’RE LEAVING ME!! YOU’D NEVER SURVIVE WITHOUT ME AROUND.’

‘Elijah you can’t stop me. My bus leaves soon.’ Despite her best efforts it was clear to see how scared she was with her trembling frame and pallor that would have convinced anyone she had already passed away, what if he tried to stop her forcefully, what kind if what if was that, of course he’s gonna try. Purse, suitcase, letter. It’s now or never. If Lewis hadn’t have shown up it would have been never, she just knew it.

‘Excuse me young man! I see the door open at the address I’m supposed to collect this fine young lady at and walk in to screaming and physical threats. I see from your uniform that you’re rather high up in Joja and I may just have to have a conversation with your superior.’

For the first time in her life, she saw the colour drain from his face as he realised how badly it would go if he lost his Joja job for physical violence. With an almost animalistic growl in his voice he spoke.

‘get out. You’ll be crying to come back to me when you realise, you’re not cut out for this.’

Bee didn’t need asking twice, scurrying out of there like a mouse narrowly avoiding its fate as cat food, shortly followed by Lewis.

‘Well I no longer question why you wanted to be gone so quickly’ he tried joking, but upon seeing her face, still haunted by fear and worry he dropped that immediately in favour of a calmer and more serious demeanour. He placed his hand on her shoulder and looked her in the eyes. 

‘Look. I’m not going to pretend life on the farm is going to be easy. You’re going to need resilience and strength, but from what I knew of you as a child, and what I saw in there, once he’s out of your life I’m sure that you have that in bucketloads.’

‘Thanks Lewis, let’s get going before I back out’

Her new beginning was waiting, what she’d been hoping for all this time.   
So why was her stomach tying itself up in knots?


	3. Chapter three

As Lewis pulled into the bus stop, she opened the door to see a red headed lady who she assumed was Robin.

‘Hey there kiddo! I’m Robin, and I’m gonna be the one showing you to your farm since our good mayor is too busy today’ greeted the woman, who was currently shooting a pointed glare at him. 

The first thing she noticed was _green_. Zuzu City had never been this colourful, back there the landscape was buildings and roads, the only nature taking the form of neglected window planters and equally neglected government flowerpots. Here however, even at the bus stop nature seemed to spill from every corner, weeds growing up the fence poles and flowers scattered amongst the grass. She was so distracted with how beautiful it was that she didn’t see Maru sneak up behind her and let out an embarrassing squeal when she was tapped on the shoulder.

‘Oh, Yoba I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you’ Maru apologised frantically, but she was stopped when Bee began talking.

‘I think I remember you, from when I used to come up here to play! You’re Maru, right?’

Realisation spread across her face as Maru recognised the woman stood before her.

‘BEE! Oh, I can’t believe I didn’t recognise your name on the announcement, I’m so dumb!’

Both girls burst out into laughter before Robin called out to them.  
‘Come on ladies, we have a farm to introduce’

‘Well, its certainly something…’ was all Bee could manage, unable to hide the disappointment in her voice. It was nothing like the farm she knew and loved so well.

After waving goodbye to the Allisters, Bee decided to spend today taking a walk around the farm she hadn’t seen in oh so many years and maybe even introduce herself to some of the townsfolk. 

The farm’s property was bigger than she had ever realised, and she found herself making plans before she even knew it; a chicken coop could go over there, maybe some cows over there, oh maybe an orchard of some sort would be nice. The peach jam that Pops used to make was so good she knew she would have to try and recreate the recipe. Wine would be nice and if she got some beehives maybe she could make mead. Now that sounded appealing. Not many alcoholic drinks called to her, but mead was one of the few that did. The way the sweet honey blended in with the spices and alcohol was one of her favourite things. 

By now she had gotten far across the farm so she slowly made her way back, groaning internally about how much work it would take to clear all of this up, and how little stamina she had to do so. But she knew that when it was eventually done, and all the weeds and stray rocks and tree stumps had gone, the feeling of pride she would get would make it all worth it in the end. 

The mid day sun bearing down on her, she started down the path towards Pelican Town, as hopefully making an effort on the first day would make her seem less like an outsider to their community. The walk was long, around ten minutes overall, and she had a sinking feeling this was a path she’d be taking a lot. However the abundant nature still wasn’t wasted on her as she drank in every colour in her surroundings, occasionally stopping to smell a flower or look at a particularly pretty butterfly; butterflies were rare back in the city, and any they got were plain and white like the rest of the place. However here, it was like seeing colour for the first time as butterflies of blue, orange and pink flew by, occasionally resting on a yellow flower or green tree. She hadn’t seen any of this since she was a kid, and now she remembered why she would bug her parents to come back so often. But despite how she felt she could spend forever soaking in every detail of her new home, eventually she made it into Pelican Town for the first time, and it was equal parts terrifying and exciting.

Looking around to see if anyone was there, she set her eyes on an old lady tending to the flowerbeds and decided that she was the best place to start. Raising her hand and heading over she called out to the woman.

‘Excuse me! I’m really sorry but I don’t think we’ve met yet. My name’s Bee and I just moved in.’

The old lady seemed overjoyed to see her and immediately pulled her into a tight hug.

‘Oh welcome dearie, my name’s Evelyn but you can call me Granny. I’m so glad someone is finally taking care of that old plot, Stanley was dear to my heart of course but its so nice to see some fresh blood around here. I don’t suppose you remember me since it was so long ago, but it's so lovely to see how you’ve grown up into a beautiful young woman. Oh, look at me rambling on again, when you probably have so much to do. Thank you for coming to see an old lady like me’

‘it was lovely to meet you Granny. I’ll definitely stop by at one point over the next few days’ she waved at the sweet lady as she walked off. If everyone in town was as friendly as she was then Bee would have no problems fitting in. 

Looking around for where to go next her eyes fell upon an old brick building. There was a hand painted, though slightly chipped, wooden sign displaying the title of the Stardrop Saloon. The sign on the door said they opened at twelve and with a quick check of her watch, she opened the door to see who was inside.

Immediately she was met with someone yelling her name, as she went over to say hi, he came around to introduce himself.

‘Hey there! The name’s Gus, I’m the owner of this fine place. I suppose you’ve had this twenty times over today, but you’ve grown up so much since the little spitfire of a kid that Stanley would bring around every so often. Gotta get back to the grill but just wanted to let you know that if you’re looking to bond with the town, pop over on a Friday evening, basically everyone shows up to relax a bit after a hard week at work.’

‘I’ll definitely keep that in mind, thanks very much’ she replied before turning around and looking around the bar. She definitely had her work cut out for her.

It may have taken what felt like forever but finally Bee had introduced herself to most of the town, and after checking the time, it was somehow 6pm already. And so, began the long walk back to her farm, but she didn’t really mind that much, it was starting to get dark and everything looked so different as the sun began to set.

Although she couldn’t shake the feeling that she hadn’t met a few people yet…


	4. Chapter four

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, sorry it's been so long...  
> school has been a total pain and i just haven't had the energy or motivation to write.  
> hopefully i can get a few chapters out over half term but as soon as i have a consistent update schedule i'll let you guys know.

God it’s so dark.

Why is it so dark?

Somehow, in the time it had taken Bee to walk home, the sun had set fully, and the cold spring air had begun to circulate. Stumbling up the steps to her farmhouse, she pulled out her keys and shakily unlocked the door. Her bag fell to the floor with a dull thud, which was followed by a suspicious clatter. What could that be? She hadn’t brought much with her and nothing she had would have made that noise. As she went to investigate, something caught her leg and she went tumbling to the ground.

Shit.

A burning pain ripped across her leg, and once that faded somewhat it was back, a pumping wave of pain. What was that? Why does it hurt? Why can’t I bring myself to move?  
It took all the willpower she had ever known to bring herself to move, and she regretted that move almost instantly. It felt like every fibre of her body was aflame, and dizziness was threatening to swallow her whole. She knew she had to call for help, had to reach her phone to call Robin. Wait, what did Robin say about the numbers she put on her phone?

"I’ll put the emergency number for the clinic on here, with a farm I’m sure you’re gonna manage to get yourself into all sorts of trouble"

That’s who I need to call. Can’t redeem yourself from a bad first impression if you’re dead. Stumbling across the floor, trying to ignore her body screaming at her to stop, she pulled her bag from the table and rummaged around inside it before pulling her phone out of the bag and dialling the emergency number.

Overall, it had been an uneventful day for Doctor Harvey. Maru had insisted that she stay to hang out for dinner, however she was now packing her things to go, and Harvey was almost considering asking her to stay the night just to have someone to talk to. But he knew that she had her own friends and hobbies and he couldn’t ask her to stay for the simple sake of his own lonely life. Maybe he would put on the tv or begin to read that new medical journal he had picked up, after all, he had to make sure his patients received the best possible care he could provide. However, any hopes of a calm and peaceful evening were dashed as soon as the emergency cell he kept on him began to ring.

His stomach dropped as he picked up the phone, and an uncharacteristic breath caught in his throat as he heard a pleading voice he had never heard before began to beg  
‘hello…? Is this the clinic? My name is Bee, I’m the new farmer. I... I tripped on...on something in my house I think and now my leg feels like it’s pulsing, erm... burning and I feel so weak. My trouser leg feels sticky...’

Her breathing sounded fast, not a good sign from what she described. Hurriedly grabbing his medical bag, he replied in the calmest voice he could muster, his doctor’s instincts kicking in.

‘Okay Bee, my name is Doctor Harvey, from the sound of it you’re bleeding, and pretty badly’

The name of her friend and the hurrying doctor prompted Maru to drop everything she was holding and drag him outside where her brother Sebastian was waiting on his motorbike. She began to explain the situation to him as Harvey continued trying to calm Bee down.

‘Focus on my voice, is your door open’

‘I think its unlocked…’

Harvey swung his leg over the motorbike and did up his helmet, a surprisingly difficult feat when you must stay on the phone.

‘okay good, I’m on my way now. Try and breathe heavily for me. Can you apply pressure to the wound?

'Bee?  
Bee can you answer me please.’

He let out a breath he hadn’t realised he was holding as her shaky voice responded to his pleas.

‘Yeah I think I can do that, please hurry.’ Desperation dripped from her, with the completely understandable undertone of fear.

After what had seemed like far too long, the traditional wooden sign that declared Honeycombe farm came into view, a sight that wasn’t quite as comforting as he’d been hoping. As they approached the farmhouse, he made triple sure he had everything. Painkillers, gauze, bandages, a tourniquet and a bottle of rubbing alcohol sat in his messenger style bag.

Sebastian paused enough for Harvey to get off before trying to park, the doctor calling for Sebastian to come in when he’s parked.

He turned on the lights and his heart dropped. There was Bee, with her acid green hair and short frame, hunched over clutching her leg, with a blood coated scythe off to the side. She gave him a look that could only truly be described as a frightened deer. She didn’t look to be doing all that well, and he didn’t have her medical files from Zuzu yet so hopefully she knew the important stuff...

‘Doctor Harvey?’ she asked timidly 

‘Yep that’s me, I’m gonna cut your trouser leg now okay?’ he replied. making sure she knew what he was doing before he did it, applying the tourniquet above the knee and twisting the handle to slow blood loss, and disinfecting what he could, with Sebastian helping him retrieve things from his bag, trying to ignore the whimpers of pain she made as he touched the cotton bud to her wound. however, she seemed worse for wear than she should have been, which alarmed him.

‘okay do you know your blood type, depending on what you say I may have to call for the hospital because you will most likely need a blood transfusion.’   
His relief at the answer of AB (his blood type so there was always some at the clinic) was bitterly short lived as the complication came to light that explained why she looked worse than expected.

She was anaemic.

With that Maru finally made it through the doors, a cooler bag slung over her shoulders.

‘Hey there doc, figured you’d need some of the red stuff’, her smile and laugh sounding forced, like if she let go of either she would just collapse in on herself. She was just an employee, not medically trained like he was, and if shed have listened, he might have told her to wait outside. 

The scratching of tire wheels against the dirt and a car door slamming finally knocked him out of his focus, and the fiery ginger woman that mothered Maru and Sebastian walked in.

‘Doc?? Sebby called, I assume you need help getting her to the clinic without disturbing her too much’

‘Yes. Thank you. Maru I’m gonna need you to help me lift, ready? Three, two, one, lift.’

They laid her gently in the back of robins van and started the drive to pelican town, hopefully he’d done enough to stop any serious damage, the tourniquet wasn’t too tight but that didn’t stop him getting the urge to check it every two minutes because what if he did more harm than good?

No, if there was one thing, he was confident in it was his abilities as a doctor. Now to put in the stitches at the clinic…


End file.
